“BUSINESS Q&A: Jewelry shop is an eclectic lot - Standard-Times” |
| BUSINESS Q&A: Jewelry shop is an eclectic lot - Standard-Times Posted: 31 Oct 2010 05:59 PM PDT  Kimberley Parker/Special to the Standard-Times William Cano, owner of Cano's Diamonds, examines the quality of a diamond in a ring setting Thursday. SAN ANGELO, Texas — All that glitters is not gold, warns William Cano. The owner of Cano's Diamonds and Coins is passionate about educating the public about buying and selling silver, gold or other valuable items wisely. "A lot of the victims are elderly," Cano said. "It's hard to face an 85-year-old widow who's only on Social Security and tell her that the coin collection her husband left her was worth $10,000, but she sold it for only $2,000 to some fly-by-night company in a hotel room." "That's not a commission, that's not a hike rate, that's just theft." Cano moved to his new location in July where he has continued his tradition of buying, selling and appraising jewelry, coins and almost everything in between. He encourages would-be sellers to get multiple appraisals from reputable jewelers before considering selling a piece. "That's the biggest battle," he said. "Just getting people to research the items." Many self-professed jewelers, he warns, will take advantage of sellers who are unaware of the value of their items. "It's so hard to hear the stories," he said. "I always tell people we're local, we see you face to face at H-E-B or at Sam's, and we do business fairly. We can face people at the end of the day." As an example, Cano points out most old silver dollars from the 1800s and 1900s are worth, on average, about $18 each. But if you have the right dollar, it could be worth hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars, depending on the date and the condition of the coin. According to Cano, this is where professionals like himself step in. "Some of the stamps on this jewelry are microscopic. I have a pen here that a lady brought to me. She said that she'd taken it to four people, and the best offer she'd had on it was $700. I took a look at it, and it turns out it was a Van Cleef & Arpels pen, worth about $3,500. No one else had caught that," Cano said. STANDARD-TIMES: How did you get started in this business? CANO: Well, originally I was active-duty military, and as a young airman you always need to have an extra job. Throughout my military career, I was headed this direction just from my part-time jobs. A lot of folks were surprised when I first opened up — they said, "Well, let's see how he does" — but at that point I already had about 20 years of experience working with jewelers, auctioneers and estate buyers. Apart from my military career, I've been playing around with jewelry almost 26 years now. Why the new location? Well, we just decided to do it bigger and better. We'd been at the old location almost four and a half years, and it was just time to make our commitment to San Angelo and West Texas and say that we're here to stay. What sets your business apart from the competition? We're not your traditional jewelry store. We combine jewelry, art, coins, estates — a traditional jewelry store is locked into jewelry, jewelry repair and jewelry manufacturing. Here we have one of only two watchmakers left in San Angelo. Once they're gone, there's no one left to fill their shoes. Another one of our strengths is our relationship with one of the largest diamond distributors in Israel. We're able to bring in diamonds as our customers need them and save, on average, 30 percent on larger jewelry distributors. Who are your customers, generally speaking? Everybody. Young couples just starting off, and older couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, wanting a 5-carat diamond. For estate buying, it can be young families in the military or older families who have been here for generations and are liquidating estates. In your opinion, what is our attraction to jewelry? Exclusivity. There's romance involved, especially with the bridal collections. For some of my antiques, it's nostalgia, rarity of an item. It's a little bit of everything. How affordable is the jewelry you offer here? We cover everything, from low-end to pricier items. I have bridal sets that start at $500. The last one we did was a little over $47,000. If someone comes in on a $500 budget, we have it covered. We take care of everyone. What kinds of jewelry do you offer? Right now, it's our own exclusive bridal line. My wife has a line of custom-designed, handmade Christian Hebrew jewelry. We do a lot of estate jewelry, a lot of vintage jewelry — Rolex, Patek Philippe, John Hardy, David Yurman, Tiffany's — some of the items are four, five or six months old, some of them are 50, 60 or 70 years old, if not older. As people require it or need it, I provide it. If you need something from pretty much anywhere in the world, I can get it for you. How is the jewelry business faring right now, especially in light of the holidays? It's a very difficult time because of the economy right now. The retail sales are very difficult to get off the ground. Anniversaries, birthdays and bridal will always be happening, but the off-the-cuff $20,000 pair of diamond earrings is few and far between. Is running a jewelry store a dangerous business? Unfortunately it can be, because of the nature of the business and high value of the items. A lot of the time we have undercover detectives, from either the city or the state, who are hired privately to work with us, which is a deterrent for the bad guys. It's always something to keep an eye out for. What's the most rewarding part of this job? We have a blast. You never know what's going to walk in the door next. Two parts are my favorite — first, the bridal line. A while ago I had an 84-year-old couple getting married for their fourth time. They came in and said, "Bill, we need some wedding bands. We're headed out to Vegas, and time is short." The whole transaction took maybe 10 minutes, and they were gone. The second part is when people come in who have a need. A couple months ago, an elderly couple came in with a Folgers can full of quarters, all black as midnight. You could tell they were in a tough spot. She said, "Honey, we're down to our Social Security check. We're ashamed to take these quarters to the bank, because they're so black." I said, "Let me have a look at them." That's the first sign that something is silver, when it's tarnished so badly. She told me, "I just hope we have enough money to get through the end of the month, for groceries and a little gas. Do you think there's at least $200 worth of quarters in there?" I counted the quarters and wrote her a check. She said, "They're quarters!" And I said, "They're silver quarters. They're worth $2,500. Hopefully, this will get you through the end of the year at least." They sat in that corner and cried for about 20 minutes. That's the best part. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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